GIF: Matt Moore’s Changepiece

A lot of things in life aren’t fair. Like having to grow up in Florida, probably. Or how your parents bought Becky a car even though they never bought you a car and you got better grades than Becky and were involved in a lot of extracurricular activities.

Another thing that isn’t fair — to Yankee call-up Brandon Laird and to a lot of major leaguers in the future — is Matt Moore’s changeup.

The one you see here is from the second inning of Thursday night’s contest between the Rays and Yankees. It features 10.1 inches of armside run and 2.2 inches of “rise” — this, relative to league averages of 8.2 and 5.1, respectively, on the change. (A note: Pitch F/x actually appeared to classify some of his changeups as split-fingered fastballs, although it’s unlikely that he’s throwing the ball purposely different.)

In all, Moore threw 11 changeups against the Yankees and received swing-and-misses on four of them (36.4%) — this, for a pitch that receives whiffs on only about 12% of offerings league-wide.

Thanks to Brooks Baseball for Pitch F/x data.